#280 The Test of the Dream Psalm 105.19 Part 1 “They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.” Psalm 105:18-19

Joseph’s greatest testing took place when he was sold into slavery by his brothers and when he was falsely accused and imprisoned in Egypt. The WORD of the dreams that God gave him tested him each day. His two dreams suggested that he would be greatly blessed. His faith in God’s ability to bless him despite his extremity of experience was tested every day. One way he coped with captivity while in prison was to live his dream by blessing others. He noticed that sadness of two of his fellow inmates. He did what he could to help them. He found out that the two of them both had dreams, and so he offered to interpret them through the power of God.

The message of God to one was freedom, and to the other was death. How this must have pained Joseph. He was the kind of man who loved people. He cared about people. And yet he had to give one of them a message that he would die in three days. Jesus, our greater than Joseph, at times also had a difficult message to convey. He foretold the temporary death and Diaspora of Israel. To the nation he loved he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killeth prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” Matthew 23:37-38 He also bore a message of life. John 14:6; Matthew 23:39Jesus our greater than Joseph was also able to cope with captivity through his love for people. He cared about people. He NOTICED their burdens and read their hearts. He cared about the weary. Matthew 11:28. He cared about the brokenhearted, the captives, the mourning ones. Isaiah 61:1-3 Jesus was able to cope with captivity through his choice to respond to the needs that he saw as he was led of the Father. He was spontaneously led to speak or be silent, to seek out or to walk by, to heal or to withhold. “I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” John 5:30 He was a man of sorrows because he was so aware of the ravishing effects of sin and death on his beloved nation as well as on the whole groaning creation. Isaiah 53:3-6Jesus was able to cope with captivity because he held onto the Dream, the Divine Vision of Truth that was revealed to him at Jordan, when the heavens were open to him. Matthew 3:16 He was faithful even to the death of the cross because he never let go of the Vision of joy set before him. “…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2He states the fullness of the Dream and Vision he was given by the Father. This Vision begins with his faithful followers and their heavenly reward. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be; if anyone serve me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:23-26; 14:1-4; He then adds another phase of the vision, when ALL would be drawn to him because of his resurrection power and the drawing power of his faithful sacrifice even to the death of the cross and the ministry of his Bride in glory. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” John 12:32-33; Luke 22:28-30

There was no experience that tested “the word of the LORD” more than the extremity of experience on the cross and there has never been a greater love that proved true to that word.